Boy Genius came up with this. It's on his site (link below) as well as our fellow site Engadget Mobile.
Caveat,though. Got a magnifying glass handy?
I say this because this is a grab apparently from a scanned document. The print is tiny, but can be read with some artful squinting, a magnifying glass or perhaps some of both.
In between convention attendance and vacation (which I am supposed to be on now), I've been Photoshopping in a major way to get this image right for you. But you should be able to make some of this stuff out.
Did you happen to see The Wall Street Journal's piece today entitled "Apple iPhone Is No ReasonTo Hang Up on RIM Shares?"
I'd link to it except the article is subscriber-firewalled.
Anyhow the gist of the piece is that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion's Pearl and forthcoming devices are priced far below the iPhone (think $199 and $299 vs. couple hundred dollars more), so that the Pearl has a leg up.
The piece also points out that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion is "cozy" with more than 225 carriers worldwide.
The iPhone? They are cozy with one- Cingular, now being rebranded as AT&T.
Sorry to be a little late on this but I have been on planes most of the day.
Seems like Boy Genius' server logs revealed a couple of accesses to his site from a BlackBerry 8820.
Rather than within RIM- where tracks-covering would surely be implemented- I guess this one's coming from a third-party testing site, a carrier, or both.
Surfing the web tonight I came across another site that talks about an upcoming announcement of the BlackBerry 8800 soon.
It was the National Post from Canada. And what did they have to say?
"This February, RIM will be launching its new "white Pearl." It will also be unveiling one of the company's sleekest handsets yet, the BlackBerry 8800 "Indigo," at Barcelona's 3GSM conference."
Now I wondered at the mention of RIM launching the White Pearl in February as it is already available from T-Mobile. Maybe it will become available from other providers in February.
However this seems to confirm what we have already seen today, and doesn't need a translation. Those of us who are hooked on the full size BlackBerry may not have much longer to wait.
The website goes on to talk about RIM stock prices and how some people might not want to wait for an iPhone or may prefer the traditional full keypad over the touchscreen.
Google's translation engine ain't exactly perfect, but it seems to get at the edges of facts in a de internet.com article posted today that implies the BlackBerry 8800 will be unveiled February 12 and released sometime in March.
I just love the way Google translates this stuff. It has a rhythmic, almost high-tech pidgin English ring to it.
But you don't want me to talk about the translation. You want me to write about what the translation says.
Pinstacker miles_troope reports that he got to hold a BlackBerry 8800 in his hands. Apparently it is a test BlackBerry with his employer.
What did he have to say about it?
No camera.
It did have WiFi.
It was heavier than he expected, heavier than the 8700. He said it was also very slim.
He did report he was not able to connect it to any WiFi hot spots.
He did not have it around long enough to see how the battery held up under usage.
He commented that it is a larger 8100, the keys are compact, but it wasn't hard to type on. I personally was a little worried after holding an 8100 this week.
BlackBerry Forums poster bbhubnewsfromafar uses his first-ever post on that Forum to tell us that in fact, he's a veteran poster but is now doing so from a new account because he doesn't want his identity to be traced.
He writes that he has some news about the Blackberry 8800 and 8900.
One lucky (though that may be a matter of dispute) eBay bidder now has a white BlackBerry Pearl headed his way.
He stepped up to the plate and forked over $1,025.00.
Poorer? Maybe a bit. But it's his money, so who are we to criticize? Listen, I write this from a Las Vegas hotel room where downstairs, people are spending a good bit more and getting nothing in return.
But at least winning bidder datasquid (cool user name BTW) has a new BlackBerry Pearl. A white one.
"I told him to get more information about the (BlackBerry) 8800 because they receive the devices way before release so they can learn it before they come out so they can help troubleshoot for customers.," muss2k1 writes.
"Anyway, the manager states that the 8800 (shown via our fellow AOL site Engadget) is still at RIM undergoing more testing," muss2k1 passes along. "He also confirms that it won't be available on Cingular until Feb earliest and April latest. "All RIM told Cingular was first quarter of 2007 but the manager states that the agreement they have with RIM is that they must get the phone atleast one month in advance so they can train their EIS reps."
One of the owners of the BlackBerry8800.com domain has just written me that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion recently contacted him about acquiring the name.
A deal has been worked out.
Cas Thompson, the domain name owner who contacted me, says that the transaction was very smooth and needless to say, BlackBerry now ons the name.
"Last but not least is... (RIM) has huge plans for the site," Cas writes. "This product (BlackBerry 8800) will be available very very soon."
As of now, though, the site BlackBerry8800.com is still in a state of flux.
"The Site is still sitting on our DNS servers at 1and1.com," Cas writes, "so the forwarding is still directed to discoverblackberry.com but all registrar info has shifted to RIM... "It will be another 45 days before they can move the DNS and do their own thing with it."
Now, if you turn the page I will show you what's changed.
There's a ragin BlackBerryForums thread going on write now entitled, "How many would jump ship from the Perl (typo is the thread-starter's)to the 8800 when it's released?
The thread is only about 36 hours old, and already has some 60 posts and nearly 1,400 views.
Answers are about evenly divided between "hell no," "hell yeah" and "we'll see."
Most of the "hell yeahs" are from the QWERTY camp. You know, those who are OK with the Pearly 8100 in its current form factor, but by choice or habit, really want a QWERTY keypad device- with an included camera kind of nice but not the driving reason?
And what about you, BBHub reader? BlackBerry 8100 Pearl with camera, 8800 with camera, or something else?